Chaiyaphum farmers adopt “Corn After Rice” initiative

 

FILE photo

 

CHAIYAPHUM, 6th December 2018 (NNT) – Rice farmers in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum are heeding the government’s advice by growing an alternative crop after the rainy season. 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives earlier introduced a campaign called “Corn After Rice” in the hope of encouraging agriculturists in 33 provinces to switch to corn and maize during the dry season. 

In Chaiyaphum province, local authorities and representatives of cooperatives and private organizations are offering advice and helping rice farmers in Kaset Sombun district grow maize or animal feed corn. An exhibition has been opened to educate the producers about corn farming, marketing, and financial assistance. 

Chaiyaphum Governor Narong Wonsiv said today the new campaign aims to bring balance to the agricultural sector as the country heads into the drought season, adding that in order to ensure sufficient water for consumption, farming, and industrial purposes, the producers must resort to drought-tolerant crops and other forms of agriculture such as livestock farming. 

Forced rice farming after the rainy season not only diminishes the country’s water supply, it also creates an oversupply of rice in the market and ultimately leads to lower rice prices.

 

-- nnt 2018-12-06

9 hours ago, webfact said:

The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives earlier introduced a campaign called “Corn After Rice” in the hope of encouraging agriculturists in 33 provinces to switch to corn and maize during the dry season. 

Don't plan on exporting corn.

Current domestic corn prices are 50-60 percent above world market prices due to the government’s domestic corn absorption requirements for feed wheat imports. The government did not implement a corn pledging program in MY2018/19 as the government still has the domestic corn absorption requirements in place for feed mills that want to import feed wheat.

Feed wheat imports are expected to increase to 2.1 million metric tons, up 4 percent from MY2017/18 as feed wheat will likely remain cheaper than domestic corn.

https://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent GAIN Publications/Grain and Feed Update_Bangkok_Thailand_8-28-2018.pdf

(8/28/2018)